the reluctant fundamentalist book sparknotes

As the two sides of his identity conflict – representing the dialectic between East and West - he feels ever more strongly drawn towards his native culture, and more an outsider than ever in his adopted home. For those people caught between the two cultures seemingly now at odds, 9/11 had an incredibly divisive effect, not only within society but within individuals who identified themselves as Muslim-American. In truth, Changez is a hybrid – neither American nor Pakistani. The subtle dialectic between Orientalism and Occidentalism within the text is fascinating, and one reads through the Eastern Gaze, which reflects back an uncomfortable, if unreliably narrated Western Gaze the tension between the characters representing the geopolitical stance of the two nations from which they originate. Much of the Western literature dealing with 9/11 has ‘Othered’ Muslims, and what we have here is an interesting response, where the Muslim character dominates the narrative, ‘Othering’, to an extent, his American companion. As he recounts his story, Changez does anything but put his American listener at ease, and, as night falls around them, uneasiness turns to sharp tension, and the novel’s conclusion draws ominously in. In the subsequent months he was forced further to the outside of American society, and as both Erica and his adopted country rejected him – making him a kind of tragic mulatto - he found solace in his native land of Pakistan, where he returned. When the twin towers fell, Changez admits to feeling a slight surge of pleasure.

Sadly, Erica was trapped by the memory of a past boyfriend who died a tragically early death. He tells of his affection for America and for one of the girls he met there, Erica. As the night fades around them, Changez tells his silent companion of his time in America, where he studied at Princeton before going on to work for prestigious New York company, Underwood Samson. Changez, the Pakistani narrator, joins an American tourist at his restaurant table in Lahore. The Reluctant Fundamentalist(2007) is a quiet postcolonial novel, which questions the West’s response to the East following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The reluctant fundamentalist book sparknotes